Town looking at big ticket items like school air conditioning and addition to the Glastonbury High School fiel

GLASTONBURY — The town council chairman says it may be time to have an in-depth discussion about "big ticket" items as the town prepares its new budget.

Stewart "Chip" Beckett III said that detailed discussion about the town's $153.6 million proposed budget begins next month. Not included in that budget are potential projects like providing air-conditioning at schools, renovation of a firehouse and building roundabouts along Hebron Avenue.

"We've always wrestled with the appropriate balance between community and individual needs," Beckett said. "Now we face the issues of balancing resident's desires for quality community services with the general taxpayers' ability to afford them."

The town released its $4.9 million capital improvement plan recently. One of the biggest potential projects is $90 million for installing air-conditioning at Gideon Welles, the town's sixth-grade school, and at Hopewell, Hebron Avenue and Buttonball Lane elementary schools.

Naubuc and Eastbury elementary schools aren't included because the buildings might close over the next few years because of declining enrollment. Smith Middle School and Glastonbury High School are already air-conditioned.

Other potential projects include the expansion and renovation of Glastonbury Fire Department Co. 3 and relocating Co. 1 headquarters to the facility.

Plans to renovate Williams Memorial, the oldest wing of Academy School, located south of town hall, have been on the drawing board for years. The plan is to move the 75-seat council chambers from town hall to Williams. The former chambers would then be renovated for office space.

The town is also looking into building an aquatics facility, expanded parking for the Riverfront Community Center and Riverfront Park and building an addition to the Glastonbury High School field house.

Town Manager Richard J. Johnson said the town's annual debt service payments "will decline significantly over the coming years" and the council could consider bundling the bigger projects and send it to a referendum for approval.

"Every one of these proposals is expensive," Beckett said. "Yet they need to be addressed in some fashion in a year or two, not swept under a rug and ignored for 15 or 20 years."